Lilia Luciano

The Trump administration is defying a federal judge who's demanding details about a flight to El Salvador. It carried almost 200 men who the administration says are gang members and who were flown from U.S. soil after the judge said, don't.

Who are these men? Who does El Salvador say they are? And what do we know about how accurate what the government portrays of them is?

All right, 8,000 of about 90,000 have been released, or so you were told. Or so I was told. So there is a possibility, again, according to Salvadorian officials, there is a possibility that if you are innocent, if you were wrongly incarcerated, you can get out.

You know, I was looking around on YouTube and Instagram earlier today, and there are a lot of videos of Sikot, of this prison, not just from traditional media outlets like CBS News, like yours, but also from seemingly random YouTube influencers. What you see behind me is the world's strictest and largest prison.

It's Today Explained. I'm Noelle King with Ted Hessen. Ted is an immigration reporter at Reuters. Ted, President Trump is using the Alien Enemies Act to target a gang called Trende Aragua. Who are they?

Nayib Bukele is not hiding this. If anything, he's publicizing this. He invited influencers in.

You report and travel around Latin America. You talk to people who say our country is also suffering from instability. We need a bukele here. It sounds like what you're saying is we might see more attempts at building prisons like this elsewhere in Latin America. Do you envision that being possible?

Lilia Luciano, CBS News. Today's show was produced by Amanda Llewellyn and Avishai Artsy. Amina El-Sadi edited, Laura Bullard fact-checked, and Patrick Boyd engineered. I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained.

President Trump and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele posted video of the shackled men being pulled from the plane by guards in riot gear and transported in white buses to prison. The official White House Twitter account also reposted a remix of the video set to Semisonic's closing time. Semisonic responded, the song is about joy and possibilities and hope.

What does the Alien Enemies Act allow the president to do about this perceived threat?

Do we know that the 200 or so men who've been deported so far are all members of this gang?

And they have missed the point entirely. Lest we all, let's focus up. The administration hasn't offered any proof that these men are gang members and acknowledges many don't even have criminal records in the U.S. All this coming up on Today Explained.

OK. All right. So there are legal challenges flying back and forth. Where do things stand legally right now?

We're going to be talking about the prison in El Salvador where these men were sent in the second half of the show. It's really a remarkable place, a very difficult place to get out of. If some of these men are able to prove that they are not members of Trend de Aragua, will they be released?

Ted Hessen, he's an immigration reporter for Reuters based in Washington, D.C. Ted, thanks so much for your time. Thank you for having me. Coming up about that prison, we're going to talk to a reporter who's been on the inside.

Lilia Luciano is a national correspondent at CBS News. Lilia was allowed inside of Sicot, a prison which was built to hold men who Salvadoran officials call the worst of the worst, gang members from MS-13 and Barrio 18.

Prisons are often viewed as very private places. Why do you think that the Salvadorian government let you in?

Tell us what you saw in this prison. What's it like?